Engaging Government: A Facilitator's Guide

Facilitator's Guide: Engaging Government

companion primer

TRAINING MODULE Applied Research for Vulnerable Children + Families

Workshop Discussions

companion primer

TRAINING MODULE Applied Research for Vulnerable Children + Families

Background The launch of the CAFO Global Network in 2018 offered new opportunities to initiate and facilitate collaborative projects with member networks around the world. Since that time, we’ve come together annually for Collaborate, a Summit experience for global leaders. Time and time again, we’ve heard from attendees that they would love to take the format and content of Collaborate back to their home countries and local leaders. Collaborate+ is just that! It is also an ideal opportunity to gather local champions for discussing key topics, sharing best practices, and developing local resources based on shared ideas. Our hope is that through local collaboration, champions may be equipped to better care for orphans and vulnerable children in their communities.

Overall Goals While each workshop has its own goals, there are some overarching goals that each facilitator should understand.

1

Establish a sense of ownership for the projects. As CAFO is focused on connecting and equipping local churches and NGOs, our hope is for the local champions to embrace the ownership of that task, as well as have responsibility for helping create the resources to accomplish that task.

2

Share the burden of resourcing projects with local champions. While most funding for orphan care ministries has traditionally come from Western entities, this is not sustainable. Local networks must take responsibility to resource their own mission. These projects require the majority of human resources to come from within the local networks, and some will also require fundraising responsibility from local networks.

3

Develop leadership and project management capabilities within local leaders. These workshops demonstrate how to work with groups and allow everyone a voice and a part in the prioritization. While we may not specifically identify this as “leadership training/development,� this is exactly what we’re doing by modeling methods and group facilitation skills.

4

Define key priorities that will be developed by network leadership into plans for implementation. We suggest a smaller, follow up meeting after Collaborate+ to compile findings and make plans to document data and information learned/gathered during the forum, and develop strategies for local implementation

Leadership Roles Many of the leaders of local networks are Inspirers - they are good at gathering other people together and sharing a common vision. This has resulted in the emergence of movements in nations around the world. However, some networks have plateaued in their development, and don’t seem to be able to get beyond raising awareness. Essentially, local Christians become aware that churches should do something about the local orphan crisis, and are even told about adoption/fostering, but there are no significant plans for “what’s next.”

We recommend Collaborate+ attendees complete the Three Roles of a Network Leader course. This course allows attendees to identify themselves as an Inspirer, Equipper, or Connector. The collaboration of all three types of leaders is necessary for successful networks.

To enroll in this course visit cafo.org/global/courses. It may be completed in one sitting.

Discussion Group Seating The Collaborate+ audience should be separated into small groups of roughly 10-20 people for each workshop. If your overall attendance is less than 60, you may want to decrease the size of these groups. Remember, this is your forum. You know your audience best, and we encourage you to make adjustments as needed to best fit your group.

Your role as a facilitator will be to lead those discussions to work through brainstorming, discussion, and prioritization of the key strategies/ideas.

Collaborate+ attendees will be assigned to specific small groups when they register. The seating for each workshop will be different: • Suggested seating for Engaging Government Small-Group Seating by Region (this may be by country if your event is continent-wide, province if countrywide, or locality/ neighborhood if it is region/citywide.

The attendees should receive a card that identifies which small group they should sit with for each Workshop Discussion session. They should be reminded to sit in their assigned groups as they enter the room for those sessions. For other sessions on the agenda, they may sit wherever they please.

Engaging Government

Engaging Government (Suggested time 2 hours)

This workshop is intended to guide leaders to think about the examples provided in the Government Collaboration session and come up with the top foundational principles to consider when collaborating with local government in their cultures.

Seating: By region/province/city/neighborhood

Workshop Setup You just heard examples of successful government collaboration from Romania, Guatemala, Zambia, and Paraguay. Using those examples, along with each of your own experiences, discuss the top 5 principles for effectively engaging government in your culture or context.

We are not looking for specific projects in this discussion. The projects will be different for every group.

Rather, we want to identify the top 5 strategic principles that our collaboration must be built upon in order to ensure successful partnerships between government and faith-based networks. Also, identify how you might achieve these principles - give 1 example for each principle.

Example PRINCIPLE: Trust between faith-based institutions/networks and government, and how to model Christ while serving vulnerable children and families.

Example of HOW: Conduct regular meetings with key leaders to keep information flowing between the government and the church.

Workshop Goals 1. Identify the top 5 strategic principles for collaboration between your faith-based network/organizations and government agencies within your culture/context and 1 example of how you might achieve EACH OF these principles.

2. Model an example of group brainstorming and prioritization to engage small groups and develop consensus.

Workshop Process After a brief overview of the workshop, the facilitators will begin working with their groups.

1. Workshop Premise: The facilitator should restate the workshop premise in their own words and make sure everyone understands the concept.

2. Facilitation: The facilitator will explain the specific task of their group (as defined below), assign key roles (such as scribe and timekeeper), and facilitate the conversation toward tangible ideas - coming up with the top 5 strategic principles to engage government through collaboration.

3. Brainstorming Technique (1-hour): • Begin by praying silently for several minutes, asking the Lord to make clear His desire for these topics.

Gather Ideas in Micro-Groups • Divide into small groups (roughly 3-5 people each) • Give each small group 3 sheets of flip chart paper (½ sheets).

• Small groups to identify 3 strategic principles - placing each on a separate sheet of paper.

• Next, they are to identify 1 example of how you can achieve this principle.

Categorize and Discuss • Bring the group back together in the large group. The facilitator, using the help of the leaders, will cluster the principles, grouping similar concepts together. From this point, the facilitator will open the discussion to allow interactions, pros/cons for each idea.

Vote on Top 5 Ideas • Engage small-group to choose the top five ideas and why these are the top five. They are to return to their small group of 3-5 and reach consensus on the top 5.

- Engage small-group to choose the top five ideas and why these are the top five. They are to return to their small group of 3-5 and reach consensus on the top 5.

- (Teach the group what consensus is and is not) Consensus is not voting, bargaining, threatening or bribing. It is reaching a mutual decision through discussion and logical reasoning.

You must have everyone agree completely for the 5 that are chosen.

• Each group will be given a large star to place on their top 5.

Those with the most stars will stand as those chosen by the large group.

4. Presentation (5 Minutes for each group) • Each group will decide on a presenter or two to stand up and present their results to the whole Collaborate group.

Suggested Project Deliverable Post-event network leaders should meet to compile data and develop a plan for engaging government in their communities. They will produce a professionally designed document that explains the results of discussions and identifies how churches and/or NGOs could implement the concepts locally.

Thank you for agreeing to facilitate a group discussion during Collaborate+!

These discussions are a key component of Collaborate+, and we deeply appreciate your willingness to serve and prepare for them.

Facilitator Receipt and Acceptance I hereby acknowledge receipt of the Collaborate+ Workshops Facilitators Guide. I have read, understand and agree to facilitate this group discussion to the best of my ability.

It is my understanding that I am facilitating the following session: Engaging Government Signature Printed Name Date

GLOBAL network cafo.org/collaborate-plus

Š 2020 Christian Alliance for Orphans